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FreedomWorks Calls on Harry Reid to Bring up Audit the Fed Bill

FreedomWorks calls on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to bring up the bill to audit the Federal Reserve. The House of Representatives passed The Federal Reserve Transparency Act (H.R. 24) with a vote of 333-92. The same bill to Audit the Fed passed in 2012 but was never brought up in the Senate. Now, FreedomWorks is calling on the Senate to bring the bill up for a vote, especially considering Senator Reid’s strong support for an audit of the Federal Reserve in the past.

“After years of the Liberty movement pushing for an audit, public sentiment has finally caught up with calls for transparency from America’s central bank. Now that the House has voted yet again to audit the Fed, it’s time for the Senate to take action,” said FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe.

“Harry Reid needs to give the Senate a chance to vote for an audit. Since he once stood on the Senate floor and called for this very measure, we are asking Harry Reid to walk the walk and bring a vote to the floor.”

Senator Reid gave a speech in 1995 where he said the following. Text and video can be found HERE:

"I have sponsored legislation every year that would call for an audit of the Federal Reserve system. I offer that amendment every year, every year it gets nowhere," Reid says. "I think it would be interesting to know about the Federal Reserve. I think we should audit the Federal Reserve — it's taxpayers’ money that's being used there. But we don't do that."

Over a thousand FreedomWorks activists from around the country called their representatives asking them to vote yes to audit the Fed. FreedomWorks sent out a key vote on the bill and will be scoring the vote in their Congressional Scorecard.

FreedomWorks aims to educate, build, and mobilize the largest network of activists advocating the principles of smaller government, lower taxes, free markets, personal liberty and the rule of law. For more information, please visit www.freedomworks.org or contact Jackie Bodnar at JBodnar@FreedomWorks.org.

FreedomWorks Vice President of Legislative Affairs Jason Pye made the following statement following the advancement of the House tax bill out of the Ways and Means Committee and recent announcements about the Senate’s tax reform bill:

Coming off a week-long recess and without any significant legislative victories this year, the pressure is on the Senate this week to pass the FY 2018 budget resolution, S.Con.Res. 25, which provides reconciliation instructions for fundamental tax reform. The House passed its own version of the FY 2018 budget, H.Con.Res. 71, on October 5 by a vote of 219 to 206.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has indicated that he will bring an ObamaCare repeal bill to the floor early next week for a motion to proceed. For those not familiar with a motion to proceed, it's a procedural vote that allows the Senate to consider a piece of legislation on the floor.

Over the past several years, there has been a move to make college campuses an ideological bubble where only preferred and pre-approved perspectives are allowed, known as “safe spaces.” It seems this line of thinking is not only on college campuses as some of our politicians have been calling for that as well. Most recently, Chairwoman of the Federal Reserve Janet Yellen openly suggested turning the Federal Reserve into a safe space.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) have introduced legislation that would repeal one of the tools that give Congress greater oversight of actions taken by federal agencies. Passed in 1996 as part of the Contract with American Advancement Act, the Congressional Review Act provided Congress with power to canceled rules finalized and published by federal agencies.

Two years after the Email Privacy Act (H.R. 387) was first introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, it was revisited Monday, Febuary 6th, and passed unanimously. This is a huge victory for proponents of digital privacy, but the fight is not over quite yet. Now that is has been passed in the House, it will need to be passed by the Senate before Americans’ right to email privacy can finally be updated for the 21st century.

Today Jason Pye, FreedomWorks' director of public policy and legislative affairs, sent Senate offices the following letter supporting the REINS Act, S. 21, sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). This bill requires that agencies’ major rules cannot go into effect until they pass the House and Senate and are signed by the president.

The U.S. Capitol Building may be closed for the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, but there will be plenty of action in the adjacent Senate office buildings. Confirmation hearings on eight of President-elect Trump's cabinet nominees are expected this week. This follows confirmation hearings on six nominees last week. Initially, more confirmation hearings were expected last week, but some delays were announced. The House is expected to convene on Friday.

On behalf of FreedomWorks’ activist community, I urge you to contact your senators and urge them to cosponsor the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, S. 16, introduced by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). This important piece of legislation would require a full audit of the Federal Reserve by the Government Accountability Office. FreedomWorks has already released a letter of support for the House version of the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, H.R. 24, introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).